


Keep The Vigil

by FaiaHae



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Inspired by seers-spectacles hornets characterization, Revenge, Wakes & Funerals, but it's about death so, loosely occurs before they confront the pine guard but after keith spills, not really major character death, spoilers for arc 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 01:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18042668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaiaHae/pseuds/FaiaHae
Summary: In the wake of the attack at the little dipper, Hollis makes a vow.





	Keep The Vigil

The Hornets didn’t go to the funerals. 

 

Hollis knew there was nothing for them to see, nothing to accomplish. Nina and Tom’s faces were destroyed, no open casket, no last goodbye. Funerals, Hollis thought with just a  _ touch _ of bitterness, were for blood. Not for  _ family, _ because they’d all been family. But for legal matters, for people who hadn’t seen them in years to stand up and spit bullshit about what kind, generous people they were. For cousins from out of town to file in a line and pretend they hadn’t turned them away for being gay, for being different. 

 

And Hollis didn’t want to send their friends off by fistfighting anybody, so it was for the better that the Hornets weren’t wanted there. 

 

They reconvened that night, and Hollis had two new tattoos on their arms when they rolled up their sleeves and faced their family. One for Nina, one for Tom. Keith was focused on the floor, his face twisted like a rag trying to drain out his tears, shaking almost imperceptibly. The words fell out of him like someone had shaken them loose.

  
“It’s my fault. Maybe if I had told you all sooner-”

 

Tim pushed his shoulder into Keith’s, a clumsy point of comfort. He looked torn, hopeless, but he almost whispered-

  
“You couldn’t have known what was going to happen, you were just trying-. We wouldn’t have wanted anything to happen to you, either.” And his voice broke on the last word, the image of the monster with it’s hand on Keith’s collar heaving him up hanging in the air around them, in the front of all of their minds, and Hollis stood, their chair scraping the ground loud enough that it shattered the silence, tore the memory open. 

 

They hadn’t been sure, before this moment, what they were going to say, but when the words came they forced their way out: they’d been there all along.

 

“We will not let this stand.”

 

Keith was crying quietly, pulling his shirt up over the bottom of his face, and Hollis put a hand on his shoulder as they addressed the room.

 

“I know we’re all grieving, I know we’re all in shock. And we’re all here, right now, to feel that. I want to take this night to drink to their memory, to talk about Nina and about Tom, to celebrate their lives. And when the morning comes, we need to let them go.”

 

Hollis’s hand got tight on Keith’s shoulder, and they were relieved by the warmth when Keith reached up to cover their hand with his. For a moment, the tattoos of each other’s names pressed together, and Hollis felt the support and the bond they’d always had, and it filled their chest with love and fury. Their voice shook a little. 

 

“We’re going to let them go, not because we want to, but because we  _ have  _ to. We need to be ready. This cannot stand, and if the fuckers who are supposed to be protecting this town aren’t going to take care of the threat, then we are. We’re going to take tonight, and then tomorrow, we find the monster, and we kill it.”

 

Hollis felt the tears burning the edge of their eyes, but they did not cry, not yet. They lifted their chin and looked out at the room.

 

“For Nina, who didn’t deserve any of this. For Tom, who went out swinging. I don’t care if I go out fighting. If I go, i’m taking it with me.The fucker dies.”

 

The tears broke through, but Hollis made no move to wipe them away. They kept their grief and their fury and let the room see it.

 

“The fucker dies.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if this is any good but it was clawing at me and it needed to get written, so here it is! all characterization (that's decent) is from seers-spectacles on tumblr, whatever sucks is probably mine. Inspired by their ideas about Hollis's tattoos.


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